A significant aim throughout Simms’s work is to provide South Carolina,
and the South generally, with pride of place in the emergence of the American
nation, its people, and their national character. Simms does this work largely through his
narration of the Revolutionary War in South Carolina, the focus of numerous
romances, histories, and other works.
One such work is The Life of
Francis Marion, a biography of the legendary “Swamp Fox.” Simms’s interest in Marion is pronounced, as
the famous general appears in several of the revolutionary romances; while
flawed at times, Simms’s ...